Sorbent Packaging

ABSTRACT

In an elongated strip of desiccant packages each package includes a body formed from spun bonded non-woven polyethylene; a lateral seal at each end of the body, the seal comprising a knurled direct, adhesive free, seal having intersecting sealing lines each of which is arranged at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the package; a longitudinal seal extending between the lateral seals printed indicia on the package disposed substantially between the lateral seals, and spaced from the longitudinal seal, the longitudinal and lateral sealing areas being substantially free of printing; at least one registration mark( on the body, the mark disposed at a known distance from at least one of the lateral seals, and outside of the sealing area; a sorbent material within the body. A method for inserting desiccant packages into product containers includes the steps of: providing an elongated strip of preprinted desiccant packages having a length at least 1000 times its width, the preprinted desiccant packages comprising first printed indicia and at least one index mark spaced from the indicia, the printed indicia and the index mark comprising food grade ink; feeding the packets to a cutter sensing the index mark; inhibiting the feeding step if no index mark is present; cutting individual packets from the strip in registration with the index mark in an area free from printed indicia; and inserting the cut packets into the product package

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to SORBENT PACKAGING and moreparticularly to packages for sorbent for automatic insertion intoproducts, such as pharmaceutical products.

2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37CFR 1.97 and 1.98

Sorbents and especially desiccants have been provided to customers inlong strips or bandoliers for many years. Automated high speed machinesand methods for manufacturing such products are relatively well-knownand a number of companies offer such products to the trade. While noparticular minimum number of packets per bandolier has developed, verylarge spools of packets are available with individual packets numberingup to 10,000 or 15,000 available in a continuous form for automaticseparation and insertion into products.

Because one of the functions of the packets is to absorb moisture,oxygen, odor, or other volatiles from products, or potentially desorbmaterials so as to extend the shelf life and deliver products tocustomers with their original potency maintained as much as possible,the package for such sorbents is usually porous or permeable tomoisture, volatiles, odorants, and the like. While a number of materialshave been used over the years to provide the combination of strength andporosity or permeability to moisture that is required for the products,Tyvek brand non-woven materials are especially popular. Non-woven's areboth strong and porous and automated methods for the manufacture andinsertion of packets made from non-woven materials have been developedby a number of competitors in this field.

Two different forms of non-woven's have become especially popular,adhesive coated non-woven's and raw form non-woven's. Adhesive coatednon-woven's are generally formed into packets by heat and pressureapplied to the seal areas while plain non-woven's are more commonlysealed by the application of ultrasonic energy and pressure to the sealareas.

Typically, a strip of non-woven material as long or longer than thedesired length of the strip of packets is provided to the fillingmachine. The filling machine sequentially rolls the strip of materialaround a mandrill and forms a continuous or intermittent elongatedlongitudinal seal by either overlapping the edges of the non-wovenmaterial or forming a fin by sealing the facing edges of the non-wovenmaterial together.

A first lateral end seal is formed transversely with respect to thelength of the strip of packaging material and a quantity of a sorbent,more particularly a quantity of desiccant is inserted into the opentubular packet. A second lateral end seal is then formed transverselywith respect to the packaging material to form a first closed packet ofsorbent and to form the bottom seal of a successive packet. The processis repeated until the length of packaging material is exhausted or untilthe desired number of packets has been formed.

The technique just described has been used for packages formed by heatand pressure on adhesive coated non-woven materials as well as forpackages formed by ultrasonic seals formed on raw non-woven materials.

A number of problems has been associated with packages of the typedescribed. The lateral seals must be designed so that when the packagesare separated for insertion, usually by cutting the seal laterally theintegrity of the seal is maintained. We have discovered that when theseals are formed with a plurality of longitudinally arranged sealingstripes, the packages may tear along the stripes and the contents mayleak out to a greater or lesser extent. Arranging the seals in aplurality of lateral rows addresses the tearing problem but createsweakness at the edges of the seal line closest to the content of thepackage which again can lead to leaks.

Another problem with seals of the type described is that while equipmentis has been developed to manufacture the product and to separate andinsert the packets into customers products at desirable high rates ofspeed, the affect of accumulated tolerance errors during manufacturingcan eventually leads to alignment errors in the installation equipment.

Preferably, the labeling for the packets is printed on the strips ofnon-woven material prior to manufacture of the packets. As used herein,labeling and labels are intended to be construed broadly so as toinclude indicia printed directly on the strips, indicia printed on othermedia that is subsequently applied to the strips and other techniquesthat will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Where a large numberof packets is formed into a continuous string of packets, errors eitherin the accuracy of the printing or in the manufacturing tolerancesduring formation and filling of the packets lead to misalignment of theprinted area on the packages, including misalignment sufficientlyserious to cause the label to fall in the sealed portions of thecontinuous string of patents. Heretofore, this misalignment has beenaddressed by providing labels that are printed in closely spacedarrangements such that no matter what size packet is formed and whatevermisalignment occurs, one or more labeled areas falls on the surface ofthe packet where it can be read. Occasionally, a portion of the labelalso falls in the lateral seal area but this has been regarded as aminor matter from a labeling perspective.

The separation and insertion machine also suffers from the effects ofaccumulated errors. Although the machine is adjusted to separate thepackets at the lateral seal areas, accumulated errors may eventuallycause a packet to be cut otherwise than in the lateral seal area, thusreleasing the contents of the packet, possibly contaminating the productinto which the packet is inserted in and requiring that the remainder ofthe string of packets be repositioned for subsequent separation andinsertion.

Another problem associated with misregistration caused by accumulatederrors during manufacturing is that especially when ultrasonic weldingis used to form the lateral seals, is that the ink used to label thepackages is degraded by the ultrasonic welding equipment and mayseparate from the package forming small flakes. Often times, even thoughthe ink may be a color other than black, the ultrasonic sealing processturns the ink black and creates black flakes that may become dislodgedfrom the non-woven material. These ink flakes cause a number of problemsincluding accumulating on the jaws of the sealing equipment, releasingfrom the packet when the packet is dispensed at the point of use and atleast visually contaminating the product in which the packet is placed,and otherwise contaminating either the equipment or the products orboth. Applicants have found that the problem of flaking ink isexacerbated by the use of a tear resistant knurled ultrasonic weldswhich are desirable for other purposes. Heretofore, one solution to theflaking ink problem has been to employ food grade inks that may beingested without harm. This does not address the aesthetic problemshowever.

Presently available long chains or bandoliers of packets manufacturednot only by applicant but by applicant's competitors all suffer from oneor more of these problems. While it might seem trivial to address theproblems caused by mis-registration for example, to date, probablybecause of the need to manufacture such packets at extremely high speedsto keep the costs low, the industry has simply accepted the problemseven though they create occasionally unusable packages of products thatneed to be discarded, stored for remediation, treated immediately or thelike, and require cleaning of the sealing machines due to ink buildup.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to improvements in desiccant packaging thataddress one or more of the foregoing problems. For example, theimprovements include providing a knurled ultrasonic lateral seal forpackets made from non-woven material without adhesive which seal resistsfraying and tearing where the packages are separated and furthermoredoes not create points of weakness where the contents of the packet mayleak out.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, each packageincludes a printed area comprising visible indicia spaced betweenadjacent sealing areas so that the sealing areas are substantially freeof printing

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the effect ofregistration errors is reduced by providing a registration mark on eachpackage, the registration mark located a known distance from a lateralseal and most preferably located outside the sealing area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

While the novel aspects of the invention are set forth withparticularity in the appended claims, the invention itself together withfurther objects and advantages thereof may be more readily comprehendedby reference to the following detailed description of the inventiontaken in conjunction with the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a strip of sorbent packagesin accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the backside of the sorbent packages of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a strip of printed material for forming thesorbent package of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a machine for forming andfilling the strip of packages shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a machine for cutting and inserting thepackages of the strip of FIG. 1 into the containers in which they areused.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1 a portion of a strip sorbent packages inaccordance with this invention is illustrated in diagrammatic form.While portions of three packages are shown, it is preferred inaccordance with this invention to provide a large number of packages ina continuous strip such as 10,000 or 15,000 packages per strip.Preferably after formation the packages are rolled on to a spool anddelivered to customers in a continuous strip.

The portion of the strip 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes three packets, allthe same. Referring to the central packet, a first end seal 14 which ispreferably an ultrasonically welded seal in which a multiplicity ofsealing points 16 is formed in a cross-hatched arrangement extendingover a predetermined length of the strip of packets. Preferably, theseal 14 is wide enough, or long enough if considered with respect to thelongitudinal extent of the strip to permit the sealing area to be cut inthe middle to divide the adjoining individual packets from the strip.Still further, the cross-hatched seal is formed either from continuouscross-hatched sealing lines or, more preferably, from an array ofsealing points which may be round, square, diamond shape or any otherconvenient shape, arranged in a grid of intersecting rows that form agenerally cross-hatched pattern. The cross-hatched pattern largelyprevents fraying when the packages are cut apart while at the same timenot forming points or lined points or line weakness that may allow thesorbent within the package to escape.

Referring briefly to FIG. 2, the packets 10 are shown from the oppositeside. As will be described in more detail below, vertical seal 30 ismade on an overlapping portion of the edges of the packaging material toform an elongated tubular structure. Preferably, the seal 30 is formedby welding and more preferably by welding a portion, but not theentirety of the overlapping edges of the packaging material together.Preferably, when a non-woven polyolefin is employed as the packagingmaterial, the welding process renders the welded portion wholly orpartly transparent or at least translucent so that the contents of thepackets may be seen through the welded portion of the package.Furthermore, when the transverse seal is formed, preferably the seal isformed across the entire of the packet and the thickest portion thereof,the portion where the edges overlap is rendered transparent or at leasttranslucent by the welding process.

In distinction from packages previously known, the cross-hatched seal 14produces a transparent region only in that portion of the seal where theedges of the packaging material overlap. Heretofore, especially wherevertical line seals were created, the transparent portion appeared as asequence of transparent vertical lines extending across the entire widthof the package. In accordance with the present invention, while thelocalized small sealing regions 16 may be transparent these regions arequite small compared with the large transparent region formedapproximately in the center of the seal.

The package also includes visible indicia such as the name, trademarkidentification of the manufacturer and so forth at 20. Preferably, thevisible indicia are printed with food grade inks, especially when thepackets are designed to be used in connection with edible products orpharmaceuticals. While the packages preferably bear a legend warningagainst eating the packets themselves, the use of food grade inksreduces any detrimental effects caused by any ink rubbing off the packeton to the products in which the packets are used.

Furthermore, the packet appropriately includes one or more preferablytwo index marks 22 printed with the same ink as the visible indicia 20and located at a predetermined position on the packet so that the seals14 may be formed by positioning the packet in the sealing equipmentusing the indicia 22. The indicia 22 may appear on the front side, theback side or both as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In addition, for even more accurate and high speed positioning of thepacket during sealing and subsequently during separation and dispensing,a higher contrast stripe 24 may be printed on the packet using a highercontrast ink.

As an alternative, registration mark 24 may be used as a securityfeature to control the use of sorbent packets in the installationprocess. For example, a bar code encoding a predetermined number orsequence of numbers may be employed which can be read at the time ofinsertion, as explained more fully below, to ascertain that the packetsbeing separated and inserted are authorized packets.

As another alternative, the mark 24 may be a trademark or a registeredtrademark whose use is permitted only by its owner. The insertionmachine includes pattern recognition sensors for recognizing thetrademark and permitting the cutting and insertion only of packetsbearing the trademark thereby insuring that unauthorized packets are notused.

FIG. 2 shows a slightly longer strip of packets, the type shown in FIG.1 from the reverse side. The packets are separated from each other bythe transverse seals 14 as described above. The reverse side of thepackage may or may not contain visible indicia 26 and 28 whichpreferably, but not necessarily is arranged on the packet on the leftand right side of longitudinal seal 30. It is important, in accordancewith a preferred aspect of this invention, that the indicia 20 on thefront side of the packets and the indicia 26 and 28 on the backside ofthe packets be arranged such that no indicia falls within the sealingareas 14 and 30. By arranging the indicia so that no indicia fallswithin the sealing areas, and providing registration marks 22 and 24 foruse by the sealing and filling apparatus, the problem of ink fallingwithin the sealing areas and being loosened from the packets by thesealing process is avoided. This reduces or eliminates the degradationof the ink during the sealing process and the possible flaking of inkfrom the package which could contaminate, at least visually, theproducts into which the packets are placed.

FIG. 3 shows a portion of an elongated web of packaging material fromwhich the packets of FIGS. 1 and 2 may be formed. The web may be anydesired length but possibly relatively long lengths of material are usedto form strips of packets that may be 10,000 or 15,000 packets long.While the web may be made from a variety of materials depending upon thenature of the sorbent enclosed within the packet, non-woven materials,preferable non-woven materials, more preferably non-woven, spun bondedpolyester materials such as Tyvek spun bonded non-woven polyestermanufactured by DuPont are used. While a variety of methods for printingthe indicia 20, 26 and 28, and the index marks 22 and 24 on the web ofmaterial may be employed, flexographic printing with food grade ink ispresently preferred.

Preferably, indicia 20, 26 and 28, and registration mark 22 are printedat one time in a third color and registration mark 24 is printed eitherat a separate printing station on the same press or subsequently.Registration marks 22 are disposed at a predetermined known distancefrom the indicia 20, 26 and 28 so that during filing and forming of thepackets from the web, the longitudinal and lateral seals may beaccurately placed so as not to overlap the areas carrying the printedindicia.

Preferably, registration mark 24 is aligned with registration marks 22.The registration mark 24 may take any of the variety of forms heretoforedescribed.

FIG. 4 shows a machine for forming and filling the packets of sorbentmaterial in accordance with this invention. Certain elements of themachine are well known and as such form no particular part of thisinvention and are not described in much detail.

The machine 112 includes a spool 11 carrying an elongated web 12 ofpreprinted material as shown in FIG. 3. The web is led over one or moreidler rollers to a forming station in which the web is formed around ahollow filling mandrel 34 to which the sorbent 36 passes in controlledamounts. An welding bar or roller 32 forms a longitudinal seal 30 bywelding the web of material into a tubular shape in a manner known tothose skilled in the art.

The lateral seal 16 is formed at a second welding station 40, preferablyan ultrasonic welding station. As discussed, seal 16 is preferably across hatched seal formed from a multiplicity of discrete weld points.

Sorbent 36 is dispensed in predetermined quantities into the packets asthe seals form. In accordance with this invention, a sensor 44 detectseither the registration mark 22 or the registration mark 24 or both andcontrols the positioning of the strip of packets so that the seal 14 isformed at a pre selected location free from printed indicia. After thelateral seals are formed, the packets are wound on a take up real 46 forshipment to customers and ultimately for the dividing and inserting intoproduct. By insuring that the lateral seal 14 is formed in an area freefrom printed indicia, ink build up on the ultrasonic seal 40 is reducedor eliminated thus making it possible to form very large numbers ofpackets without cleaning the packing machine.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of apparatus for unrolling, cutting andinserting packets into product containers. The packets are wound on aspool 46 from which they are lead by rollers to a cutting station. Asensor 48 positions the strip of packets accurately at a cutting stationso that the packets are separated from one another in the lateral sealarea 14 preferably at the center of the seal area. Because the packetsare free from printing in the seal area, no residue is deposited on thecutters by loose flakes of ink that have heretofore made it necessary toperiodically stop the insertion process and clean the cutting station.Furthermore, because the visible indicia 20 is registered on the packetwith respect to the lateral seals, each packet has accurately placedvisible indicia thereon rather than having multiple indicia whichoverlap the lateral seal area and divided at the cutting station. Afterbeing cut, the packets 12 are inserted into product containers 54 whichmay for example be presented to the cutting station by a conveyor beltor the like as is well know to those skilled in the art.

While the invention has been described in connection with severalpresently preferred embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art willappreciate that many modifications and changes may be made thereinwithout departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention whichaccordingly is intended to be defined solely by the appended claims.

1. An elongated strip of desiccant packages each package comprising: abody formed from spun bonded non-woven polyethylene; a lateral seal ateach end of the body, the seal comprising a knurled direct, adhesivefree, seal having intersecting sealing lines each of which is arrangedat an angle to the longitudinal axis of the package; a longitudinal sealextending between the lateral seals printed indicia on the packagedisposed substantially between the lateral seals, and spaced from thelongitudinal seal, the longitudinal and lateral sealing areas beingsubstantially free of printing; at least one registration mark on thebody, the mark disposed at a known distance from at least one of thelateral seals, and outside of the sealing area; a sorbent materialwithin the body.
 2. The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim 1in which the intersecting sealing lines comprise lines of discretesealing points.
 3. The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim 1in which the sorbent comprises a desiccant.
 4. The elongated strip ofdesiccant packages of claim 1 in which the registration mark comprises aproprietary mark.
 5. The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim4 in which the proprietary mark comprises a trademark.
 6. The elongatedstrip of desiccant packages of claim 4 in which the proprietary markcomprises a bar code.
 7. The elongated strip of desiccant packages ofclaim 1 comprising at least translucent region in the lateral seal. 8.The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim 1 in which theprinted indicia and the registration mark comprise food grade ink. 9.The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim 1 further comprisinga second registration mark aligned with the first registration mark. 10.The elongated strip of desiccant packages of claim 9 in which the secondregistration mark comprises a proprietary mark.
 11. The elongated stripof desiccant packages of claim 10 in which the proprietary markcomprises a trademark.
 12. The elongated strip of desiccant packages ofclaim 9 in which the second registration mark comprises an ink differentfrom the first registration mark.
 13. A material for fabricating asorbent package comprising: an elongated web of spun bonded polyestermaterial having a length at least 1000 times its width; first visibleindicia formed from food grade ink applied in a repeating sequence oflocations along the length of the Web; a first index mark associatedwith each instance of the first visible indicia formed simultaneouslythere with from food grade ink; a second index mark in registration withthe first index mark and form separately therefrom.
 14. The material forfabricating a sorbent package of claim 13 in which the second index markcomprises a proprietary mark.
 15. The material for fabricating a sorbentpackage of claim 14 in which the proprietary mark comprises a trademark.16. The material for fabricating a sorbent package of claim 13 furthercomprising second visible indicia spaced laterally from the firstvisible indicia and aligned longitudinally there with, the secondvisible indicia formed from food grade ink.
 17. The material forfabricating a sorbent package of claim 16 further comprising thirdvisible indicia spaced laterally from the first visible indicia andaligned longitudinally there with, the third visible indicia formed fromfood grade ink.
 18. A method for forming desiccant packages comprising:providing an elongated web of preprinted packaging material having alength at least 1000 times its width, the preprinted packaging materialcomprising first printed indicia and at least one index mark spaced fromthe indicia, the printed indicia and the index mark comprising foodgrade ink; wrapping the web of preprinted packaging material around amandrel to form an overlapping sealing area that is free from printedindicia; forming a first longitudinal seal in the overlapping sealingarea, the seal being free from printed indicia; sensing the index mark;forming a first lateral seal in registration with the index mark in anarea free from printed indicia; inserting a quantity of desiccantmaterial into the package; positioning the package for forming a secondlateral seal with respect to the index mark; and forming the secondlateral seal in registration with the index mark in an area free fromprinted indicia.
 19. The method for forming desiccant packages of claim18 comprising the step of forming a second index mark in registrationwith the first index mark.
 20. The method for forming desiccant packagesof claim 19 in which forming the second index mark comprises forming aproprietary index mark.
 21. Apparatus for separating a strip of packetsinto individual packets and inserting the packets into a productcontainer comprising: a spool; a continuous strip formed from amultiplicity of packets attached end to end, the strip wound on thespool, each packet including an index mark spaced a predetermineddistance from an end of the packet; a cutter separating the continuousstrip of packets into individual packets; a feeder receiving the packetsfrom the spool and delivering the packets to the cutter; a sensorpositioned adjacent the strip of patents between the spool and thecutter responsive to the index mark for positioning the strip of packetsrelative to the cutter for separating the packets from the strip at theend of each packet; a controller coupled to the sensor causing theapparatus to halt if the index mark is not detected.
 22. The apparatusof claim 21 in which the index mark comprises a proprietary index mark.23. The apparatus of claim 21 in which the index mark comprises atrademark.
 24. The apparatus of claim 21 in which the index markcomprises a bar code.
 25. A method for inserting desiccant packages intoproduct containers comprising: providing an elongated strip ofpreprinted desiccant packages having a length at least 1000 times itswidth, the preprinted desiccant packages comprising first printedindicia and at least one index mark spaced from the indicia, the printedindicia and the index mark comprising food grade ink; feeding thepackets to a cutter sensing the index mark; inhibiting the feeding stepif no index mark is present; cutting individual packets from the stripin registration with the index mark in an area free from printedindicia; and inserting the cut packets into the product package.